Golf putting trainer

ABSTRACT

A golf putting trainer includes a holder for a putter having a shaft and a head, elements for guiding the holder in a curved movement path and elements for holding the putter head in a position perpendicular to the direction of movement of the holder. The golf putting trainer includes elements for adjusting the curvature of the movement path of the holder both vertically and horizontally.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a golf putting trainer comprising aholder for a putter having a shaft and a head, means for guiding theholder in a curved movement path and means for holding the putter headin a position perpendicular to the direction of movement of the holder.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

On a golf round about 45% of the strokes are putting strokes. It is thusessential to put good in order to be a good golfer.

In a correct putting swing the head of the putter is perpendicular tothe putting line when the ball is hit. If the head is not perpendicularto the putting line the ball will spin and move away from the puttingline. A golf green is however seldom totally horizontal which means thatgravity influences the path of the ball. Thus, a person performing aputting stroke will therefore have difficulty in determining if path ofthe ball is due only to influence by gravity or if spin also had aninfluence.

There is therefore a need for a golf putting trainer in which a correctputting swing can be teached.

Several golf putting trainers are known. JP 2000300709 A discloses sucha trainer in which a putter head is movable along a guide rail with thehead rotatable around a vertical axis a certain degree. This trainer issaid to make the user feel if an incorrect putting swing is performed.JP 6126010 A discloses such a trainer in which a holder for a putter isguided by arcuate rails.

The object of the present invention is to provide an improved golfputting trainer, in which a putter is moved in a path that can bevertically and horizontally curved, the curvature of the path beingadjustable in order to adapt the trainer to the length and constitutionof the user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the invention is obtained by a golf putting trainercomprising a holder for a putter having a shaft and a head, means forguiding the holder in a curved movement path and means for holding theputter head in a position perpendicular to the direction of movement ofthe holder, characterised by means for adjusting the curvature of themovement path of the holder both vertically and horizontally. By thispossibility of adjusting the curvature, the putter can be made to followthe correct putting swing movement for the individual using the trainer.

In a preferred embodiment, the means for guiding the holder comprisestwo parallel elongate guide rails supported by a frame, the rails beingattached to the frame in their forward and rear ends and in a pointtherebetween.

Furthermore, the trainer has means for adjusting the vertical andhorizontal position of the ends of the guide rails which are arranged tomove the forward or rear ends synchronously so that the guide railsalways be parallel to each other. The means for guiding the holdercomprises means for preventing rotation of the holder around the axis ofthe putter shaft and out of a plane comprising the two parallel rails.

In a first alternative, the means for guiding the holder comprisesrollers running on a surface of the rails, wherein at least two rollersbeing displaced vertically and horizontally in relation to each otherare associated with each rail.

In a second alternative, each rail comprises a groove running along thelength thereof, in which rollers protruding from the holder are guided.

Advantageously, a mirror is attached to the holder and located in aplane parallel to the plane comprising the rails.

In the first embodiment the holder comprises a vertical wall beingperpendicular to the elongate rails and means for removably affix thestroking face of a putter head to said wall, said wall comprising anopening for the part of the putter head comprising the sweet-spot of theputter head.

In a second embodiment of the invention, the putter is integrated in theholder.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention will now be described with reference to the enclosedfigures, of which;

FIG. 1 shows a schematic perspective view of a golf putting traineraccording to a first preferred embodiment of the invention,

FIG. 2 shows an end part of the frame of the trainer in FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 shows a section along line III—III in FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 shows a front view of a holder for a putter in the trainer inFIG. 1,

FIG. 5 shows a section along line V—V in FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 shows a view from above of the holder in FIG. 4,

FIG. 7 shows a perspective view of the holder in FIG. 4, and

FIG. 8 shows a perspective view of a holder according to a secondembodiment.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

A golf putting trainer according to a first preferred embodiment isshown in FIGS. 1–7. This trainer comprises a frame 1 for supporting twoparallel, elongate guide rails 2 for a holder 3, in which a putter canbe removably affixed. The frame 1 comprises two parallel elongate beams4 or the like and an upstanding end part, a front end part 5 and a rearend part 6, the end parts 5,6 being attached to the front and rear endsof the beams 4. Each guide rail 2 is affixed to the adjacent beam 4 in amiddle point 7 of the beam and the ends of the rails are supported byadjustment devices 8,9 arranged in the front and rear end parts 5,6 ofthe frame 1 to be movable in a vertical and horizontal direction. In theshown example the rails have the form of tubes having a circular sectionbut the tubes can of course have other sections, such as square orrectangular sections. Furthermore, the rails need not be hollow and canconsist of rods.

In FIGS. 2 and 3 the adjustment device 9 arranged in the rear end part 6is disclosed. The adjustment device 9 comprises a transversely extendingrod 10 which ends are slidable in a vertical plane perpendicular to thelength direction of the beams 4 in vertical slots 11 provided in thevertically extending side beams 12 of the rear end part 6. This rod isrotatably supported in a transverse bar 13 having downwards directedflanges 14 abutting the insides of the side beams 12 of the rear endpart 6. The bar 13 is in the middle thereof provided with a nut 15co-operating with a threaded bolt 16 being rotatably supported in theupper crossbeam 17 of the rear end part 6. By rotating the head 18 ofthe bolt 16 in opposite directions the bar 13 and thereby the rod 10 canbe moved upwards and downwards in the slots 11.

The adjustment device 9 also comprises two attachment rods 19 forattaching the rear ends of the rails 2 to the adjustment device. Therear ends of these attachment rods are supported by the transverse rod10 which run through holes 20 in the rear end portions of the attachmentrods 19. The rear end portions of the attachment rods 19 also comprisesholes perpendicular to the holes 20 in taps 21 are provided. These taps21 are affixed to a sleeve 22 having holes corresponding to the holes 20for the passage of the transverse rod 10 and threaded holes for theaffixing of the taps 21. The transverse rod 10 is threaded at least inparts and the undersides of the taps comprise threads co-operating withthe threads on rod 10. The outer ends of the rod 10 are provided withheads 23. By rotating these heads 23 the attachment rods 19 can belaterally moved back and forth. The holes 20 have the form of a doublecone with bases directed outwards in order to permit angulardisplacement of the attachment rods 19 in relation to the rod 10. Therear end portions of the rails 2 are slidably attached to the attachmentrods 19.

The adjustment device 8 for the front ends of the rails 2 is constructedin the same way as the adjustment device 9 for the rear ends of therails 2 and need not be described further.

FIGS. 4–7 show a first preferred embodiment of the holder 3 for aputter. The holder 3 comprises a front wall 24, a rear wall 25, two sidewalls 26,27 and a bottom wall 28. The front wall 24 has an opening 29,in which the central part of a putter head is to be placed. A resilientelement 30 is protruding upwards from the bottom wall 28 on both sidesof the opening 29 in the front wall and a self-locking band 31 such as aVelcro™ band co-operating with each element 30 is attached in the frontwall and can operated to press this element downwards. Thereby a putterhead placed between the elements 30 can affixed to the holder 3 with itsstroking face pressing against the front wall and its bottom facepressed against the bottom wall 28. The resilient element 30 can forexample be a metal piece. In the bottom wall two rows of openings 32 foraccommodating the elements 30 are arranged so that the location of theseelements can be adapted to the type of putter head to be attached to theholder.

On the side walls 26, 27 of the holder, rollers 33,34 and 35 arearranged to co-operate with the rails 2 so that the holder is unable torotate in or move out of the plane comprising the rails 2. This isaccomplished by displacing the rollers 34,35 from the roller 33 bothvertically and lengthwise.

The described putting trainer functions in the following way.

Firstly, the trainer is adapted to the individual who is to use thetrainer. For a long individual the radius of the swing is larger thanfor a shorter individual provided they use the same putting grip. Thismeans that for a short individual the ends of the rails 2 must be higherup than for a long individual. The ends of the rails 2 are alsoadjustable sideways, i.e. laterally in relation to the length direction.However, the differences of the radius of the swing in a horizontalplane are much smaller than for the differences of the radius in avertical plane.

After the trainer has been adapted to the individual using it, the headof the putter attached to the holder will always follow the correctmovement path, hitting the ball in a position perpendicular to theputting line, i.e. a line parallel to the length direction of the rails2. When the ball is hit by a correct putting stroke, the head of theputter should be slightly above ground. This means that in the lowestposition during its movement, the bottom of the holder should almosttouch the ground. Therefore, the rails 2 are placed within the heightregion of the beams 4 of the frame in their attachment points 7 and adistance on the front and rear sides thereof. In order to allow movementof the rails 2 in a direction perpendicular to the rails 2, the railsare distanced from the beams 4 and attached thereto via distanceelements 36, as can be seen in FIG. 1.

Thus, a putter attached to the holder 3 will always perform a correctputting stroke. All the individual using the trainer has to do is togrip the shaft of the putter, swing and follow the movement of theputter. A correct putting stroke will thereby be learned by motorlearning.

The holder 3 is advantageously also provide with a horizontally disposedmirror 37 having a marking in the middle thereof representing theposition of the sweetspot of the putter. This makes it possible for theuser to check that he has his/her eyes directly above the ball, which isessential for the aim. When the trainer is used together with a ball,the ball should be placed in the middle of a line between the attachmentpoints 7 of beams 4.

In FIG. 8 a holder 3′ according to a second embodiment of a puttingtrainer is schematically shown. The putting trainer according to thesecond embodiment differs from the putting trainer according to FIGS.1–7 only in that a putter is integrated in the holder and that the sidewalls only support two rollers 33′, 34′ instead of three rollers as inthe first embodiment. Otherwise this trainer is constructed in the sameway as the trainer according to FIGS. 1–7 and need not be furtherdescribed. The putter integrated in holder 3′ has a shaft 38 protrudingfrom the front wall 24′, which thereby constitutes the putter head.

The described embodiments can of course be modified in several wayswithout leaving the scope of the invention. For example, the rails canhave grooves along the length thereof, in which rollers are guided.Furthermore, resilient clamping devices or other means can be used toattach a putter head to the holder. The attachment rods can be madeangularly displacable with the aid of universal joints instead of holeshaving the form of double cones or by being made of a bendable material.The attachment rods need no be rods but can be tubes fitting onto orinto the end portions of the rails. The bottom wall of the holder canconsist of one or several bars instead of a plate as in the disclosedembodiments. The adjustment devices can be different from the describeddevices, for example can the front and rear end parts of the frame belaterally movable as a whole in order to accomplish the sidewisemovements of the rail ends and the side beams of the front and rear endparts can be made of two telescopic portions. The scope of inventionshould therefore only be restricted by the content of the enclosed setof patent claims.

1. Golf putting trainer comprising: a holder for a putter having a shaftand a head, means for guiding the holder in a curved movement path,means for holding the putter head in a position perpendicular to thedirection of movement of the holder, and means for adjusting thecurvature of the movement path of the holder both vertically andhorizontally.
 2. Golf putting trainer according to claim 1, wherein saidmeans for guiding the holder comprises two parallel elongate guide railssupported by a frame, the rails being attached to the frame at theirforward and rear ends and at a point therebetween.
 3. Golf puttingtrainer according to claim 2, wherein said means for adjusting thecurvature of the movement path comprises means for adjusting verticaland horizontal positions of the ends of the guide rails.
 4. Golf puttingtrainer according to claim 3, wherein said means for adjusting thevertical and horizontal position of the ends of the guide rails arearranged to move the forward or rear ends synchronously so that theguide rails are always parallel to each other.
 5. Golf putting traineraccording to claim 2, wherein said means for guiding the holdercomprises means for preventing rotation of the holder around the axis ofthe putter shaft and out of a plane comprising the two parallel rails.6. Golf putting trainer according to claim 5, wherein said means forguiding the holder comprises rollers running on a surface of the rails,wherein at least two of said rollers are displaced vertically andhorizontally in relation to each other.
 7. Golf putting traineraccording to claim 2, further comprising a mirror attached to the holderand located in a plane parallel to the plane comprising the rails. 8.Golf putting trainer according to claim 2, wherein said holder comprisesa vertical wall that is perpendicular to the elongate rails and meansfor removably affixing a stroking face of a putter head to said wall,said wall comprising an opening for the part of the putter headcomprising the sweet-spot.
 9. Golf putting trainer according to claim 1,further comprising a putter integrated in the holder.
 10. A golf puttingtrainer, comprising: a frame that includes a longitudinally extendedbase with upwardly depending distal ends, each of said ends carrying alaterally extended rod that is movable vertically relative to said base;two parallel guide rails that together define an arcuate path, each ofsaid rails having ends that are each attached to a respective said rodand a central part that is attached to said base; each of said rodshaving a laterally threaded part along which the ends of said rails movelaterally; and a putter holder that moves along the arcuate path definedby said rails, said putter holder having two pairs of spaced apartwheels that hold said putter holder to said rails.
 11. The trainer ofclaim 10, wherein each of said distal ends comprises a pair of spacedapart vertical slots that receive respective ends of said rod, alaterally extended bar with ends that also receive respective ends ofsaid rod, and an adjustment bolt that moves said bar vertically to causesaid rod to move vertically and remain parallel to said base.
 12. Thetrainer of claim 11, further comprising a rotatable adjustment head thatextends from one end of said rod beyond a respective one of said slotsand that is connected to said threaded part so that rotation of saidadjustment head causes rotation of said threaded part and lateralmovement of the respective ends of said rails.